This piece was created using an image of Saturn’s rings from the Cassini spacecraft. The image was processed into layers by brightness, and each layer was cut from a sheet of metallic paper. The colors of each layer alternate between cream, silver, gold, and copper.

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This piece was similarly challenging to Europa, as processing an image is trickier than manipulating the topography data I’m used to working with. Due to the way the light reflects off the rings, there was no way to separate out discrete rings by themselves. But the original image is black and white, so processing it into layers by brightness captured many of them. The outer portions of the rings retain artifacts of the light reflection, giving the piece added visual complexity. I alternated between cream, gold, silver, and copper metallic papers just for fun. In the end, the piece turned out to have a lot more structure than I’d originally expected it too. It was made for a friend and mentor who studies (among other things) ring dynamics.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute